Magruder Back

Sailors on the U. S. S. Procyon last week prepared to receive a new commanding officer. From his country home in Rhode Island, Rear Admiral Thomas Pickett Magruder hurried to the Procyon, off the Pacific Coast, eager to get back into active service after almost two years of penal idleness on the "waiting orders" list.

Redheaded, assertive Admiral Magruder' had been in eclipse since October, 1927 when, writing in the Saturday Evening Post on "The Navy and Economy," he had charged the Navy with being poorly administered, overofficered. Personally offended, Coolidge Secretary of the Navy Curtis Dwight Wilbur decided the articles were in unbecoming taste, relieved their author of his command at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Since then Admiral Magruder has been on full pay, but inactive. Last week Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams, after conference with the President, ordered him back to duty.

No battleship command falls to the author-admiral. The supply vessel Procyon is flagship of the Fleet Base Force at San Pedro, Cal., essentially a training organization. Observers noted that Admiral Magruder's new post is likely to be his last. Aged 62, and only two years remain between him and retirement.